Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - 30 Year Master Plan (Tilton & O'Donnell) [PAGE 214]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

208

Appendix B

4. A still further interest that has not yet been much considered but which is involved in it all, is abundant strolling ground for students, which we ought to have in this great prairie region. c. The briefest possible consideration of these facts must show to any one the necessity of acquiring space while it yet may be acquired—space in amounts which would be prohibitive were we carving it out of a city, but which is entirely feasible while farm land is yet within reach-. 6. The vital character of these considerations and the possibility of quartering all these interests close together, making it unnecessary to go long distances away, as other institutions have been compelled to go, make it clear to me that at almost any sacrifice the acquisition of space is the first duty of the University at this juncture in its development. I do not pretend to be a judge of the architectural or landscape gardening excellences in the special plan that you have proposed, nor do I suppose that the complete study has yet beeen made for the full treatment of the space which would naturally be devoted to buildings; but in general the purpose to acquire the space to the southwest as far as the Illinois Central tracks is, I am sure, not only desirable but entirely feasible. 7. This space ought to include the contraction of the cemetery to the smallest possible compass, looking to its ultimate removal. In matters of this kind, however, time does much, and for the present if the area can be restricted it may not be objectionable, perhaps; but when we consider the location of the present campus and the south farm, it is seen that the cemetery is practically in the middle of our holdings. 8. The proposed change in the location of the Horticultural interests would mean temporary distress for that department—a department which has always been harassed by doubt as to its ultimate location and whose interests have never before been much considered in discussions of this kind until the plan which you have presented. This plan proposes not an extinction but a transfer of these interests, and this transfer is feasible provided it can be effected in a large way and without expecting this department, out of its own funds, to bear the cost of the transfer as well as the disturbance to its interests. 9. Without a doubt the agricultural interests are the ones most disturbed by the adjustment proposed in your plan or which might be proposed in any other plan that looks to the acquisition of territory in this direction; and yet if the matter as a whole shall be considered in a large way, looking to the acquisition of this outlying territory as a part of the scheme, I am heartily in favor of it. The transfer can be made somewhat gradually, and after it is all over the departments disturbed can be restored in excellent condition, the future development of the University as a whole provided for, and the outdoor life of the institution assured.